[8Fold/Contest] Journal Into... #14 : All Us Zombies (HC13)

[Andrew Perron]

On Mon, 27 Sep 2010 05:30:28 +0000 (UTC), Saxon Brenton wrote:

>      But the diabolical Professor Longitude had to get out of the 
> mindset of fighting heroes if he was going to battle against... himself!

Dun dun dunnnnnn!

>      Massive sub-sonic force penetrated the force field and shook the 
> diabolical Professor Longitude like a rattle.  He barely had enough time 
> to adjust the inertial dampeners to compensate.  Still, he had remained 
> standing in the face of his enemy.

Ooooh, nice way of getting around a forcefield.

>       "Lies!" spat the counterpart Professor Longitude, and activated 
> an ID insinuator to reduce his opponent to gibbering madness. However 
> the diabolical Professor Longitude had an ESProtector to keep out any 
> psychic attacks.

They *laughed* when he wanted to play a psion in 4th!  Well, WHO'S LAUGHING
NOW!?

>      Of course, it now occurred to the diabolical Professor Longitude 
> that if this interloper was from a parallel Earth then he could use a 
> quantum destabiliser to rip the counterpart Professor Longitude free 
> from this strata of space-time and send him drifting helplessly between 
> continua.  But when he tried he found that the counterpart Professor 
> Longitude had taken the precaution of imbedding himself in the local 
> universe by bringing his reality quotient up to parity; he wouldn't be 
> budged by anything short of the space-time shredder...  Ooo, now there 
> was an idea.

Stealing technology from the hamsters, eh?  Tsk tsk.

>      "Oh, I dare!  I am your son, come back in time to wipe clean the 
> reputation of my evil father!" declaimed Doctor Longitude.
>      "Then I will ensure that wear protection when entertaining myself 
> with my concubines," said the diabolical Professor Longitude.
>      "Your clonal son, raised in an alternate future of the antimatter 
> universe!" added Doctor Longitude through gritted teeth.

Of course, it's all so simple!

> A black cape would expect treachery.  Maybe he could throw his counter-
> part off guard and lull him into a false sense of security by... 
> honouring an agreement to help one another?
>      Uhm, no.  

XD That's... great.

>"And you know, *Dad*," he said, making that last word a 
> thing of scorn,

That seems more casual than he's been so far.

>      Doctor Longitude arrived back at his home base and went to report 
> to his grandfather.  Yes, his grandfather.  The villainous and long-
> thought-dead-but-you-really-shouldn't-assume-that-sort-of-thing-unless-
> you've-actually-seen-the-body Silver Age Professor Longitude.

Gasp!!

>      "Yes, I watched the confrontation on the transluminal interocitor 
> you created," said the Silver Age Professor Longitude.

Nor-mal VIEW!

>      "...since you have the genetic disposition for mad science that I 
> lack.  I will plan a campaign against him.  You will supply the mad 
> science technology to counter his inventions.  Together we will harass 
> him - and then when he at his weakest, I will destroy him."  The Silver 
> Age Professor Longitude smiled at the thought.  "Put him down like a 
> rabid dog."

Oooooh, shivery. <3 I'd like to see these people come back.

>      I sat up until after midnight and into the morning of the 26th to 
> get this ready for posting just under the deadline of the 25th USA time, 
> and then discovered the date extension.  So I took an extra day to do 
> some polishing.  Nevertheless the end bit still seems info-dumpy and 
> rushed.  Sorry.

Actually, I thought this one had a really good energy to it!  The end was
exposition-y, but it made sense and had characterization.  The story as a
whole was zippy and fun.

> So, okay, yes, the header was stuffed up.  ('Journal Into' my 
> overweight backside).  It seems that not so much polishing went 
> into it to correct that little error, after all.

You know, I didn't even notice. >>;

> And now that I think to check, it's _Journey Into_ rather than
>  _Journey Into..._ these days.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, still prefers the ellipsis.